Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Blood Bowl: Kick or Receive?

When I first started playing Blood Bowl again I read a lot of stuff on bbtactics about the different races and players and stuff, and a few generic strategy articles. One talked about how it was correct to kick off in the first half because this gave you proper tempo to pull off what they call a 2-1 grind while only allowing your opponent a single shot at getting his KOs back at halftime. (If you receive first and score as late as possible then your opponent gets two shots at KO rolls. One before he receives in the second half of turn 8, and one before the start of the second half.) Then I started reading the forums on FumBBL and the prevailing opinion there seems to be that the game is broken and often decided on a coin flip. Whoever gets to receive first just wins. What gives?

I've been thinking about it some and I think it comes down to the types of teams in the game. If one team is a bashy team and the other is a dodgy team then kicking first seems to make a lot of sense. You want the 2-1 grind, or to break out of it, and no matter which side of the equation you're on you want to kick first.

On the other hand, if both teams are true killer teams with a 'pile on all mans' philosophy then receiving first is super strong. You get the first chance to throw 4 blocks with your brutal killing machines. Get a little lucky and you could put your opponent into a hole out of which it is really hard to climb.

What about two dodgy teams? I don't have any experience here since most of my teams are on the bashy side of things but it feels like it probably doesn't matter all that much. A key may be having as many men standing as possible on your half to one turn touchdown, which means you want to kick first.